CENTENNIAL, WYOMING February 8, 1975

From: The Snowy Torrents

ACCIDENT SUMMARY
On Saturday night, February 8, a church sponsored dinner and snowplay social was being held near Centennial. One mile north of that town, located on the east slope of the Snowy range, 14 teenaged youngsters were sliding on innertubes down a steep snow bank on the North Fork of the Little Laramie River. This location has been a popular site for tubing for 7 years.

At 2020, the slope fractured at the top just beneath a small cornice that had formed from the winter’s winds. The group had just made their first slide down the slope and were walking back up when it broke. All 14 were caught. The avalanche debris piled more than 5 feet deep in a 40- to 20- foot area at the bottom of the slope. Three of the kids were totally buried and two were partially buried. All but one of the victims were quickly uncovered.

RESCUE
The group quickly determined that 14-year-old Perry Despain was missing. Parents with snow shovels began digging immediately. The Wyoming State Patrol was notified.

At 2135 Despain was found by shovelers digging a trench through the snow. He was uncovered face down in 4 feet of snow. He had been buried an hour and 15 minutes.

The boy’s father began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, while a deputy sheriff initiated heart massage. The boy showed no response after 30 minutes. His body was removed from the site. The coroner later ruled death by suffocation.

AVALANCHE DATA
This avalanche was classified as HS-AO-1. It was triggered by the combined weights of the snow tubers on the slope. The snow fractured several feet deep and sixty feet across, slid down the 80-foot slope to the river flats, and piled debris 6 feet deep.

The avalanche slope is located at an elevation of 8,200 feet and is a northeast-facing bank above the river. The top of the slope has a pitch of 40 degrees. It is an open slope surrounded by sagebrush and small aspen trees. Depth hoar had formed at the bottom of the pack, and this is where the snow failed.

COMMENTS
Once again, a small avalanche can kill. The avalanche debris piled up deeply at the sharp transition between slope and riverbed. Without probes, the rescuers were helpless to make a quick recovery. Although this is a small and frequently used slope, the conditions that day – the steepness and the presence of depth hoar – turned it into an avalanche path.